I've disciplined myself to the point where I always verify that I am already following my own advice when I give it, or have very reasonable justifications for why I'm not. (I don't use tampons, for instance.) In order to get to this point, I had to buckle down and force myself to take the medicine I offered.
It's usually hard. Very hard. But I considered it a testimony of my personal conviction in my own beliefs that I could cross the threshold from hypocrisy to living what I believe.
Achieving it is a matter of metacognition. It's better outlined in three stages:
1) Stage of Ignorance. - You give advice, but you don't follow it.
2) Stage of Sophistication. - You start to ignore your own advice, then catch yourself in the act and backpedal. Or you just work at it more the next day.
3) Stage of Effortlessness. - You take your own advice: it's obvious, and you just do it.
Metacognition has to do with moving from Stage 1 to Stage 2. You have to catch yourself making mistakes and being hypocritical. You visualize yourself doing it right. You remind yourself over and over. When you make a mistake, you're stunned and apologize profusely.
After a while, the time between catching your mistake and apologizing for it gets shorter. Then, it gets so fast that there's no point in apologizing: you didn't actually make the mistake, and you do it right instead.
And then, without you realizing it, you're just doing it right. And you'll look back a year later and say, "Wow. I got it!" Welcome to Stage 3.
__________________ "I read, I interpret, I think, I criticize, I oppose, I listen, I write, I question, I reply, I quote, I tell, I name, I discuss, I interpolate..., I learn, I teach, I live, therefore I am." -- Marc-Alain Ouaknin, "Mysteries of the Kabbalah", p383.
Favorite Essays I Wrote: love, identity & growth, economics, education, equality, definitions.
Recent Books I liked: Anansi Boys, Fly By Night, Hyperion. |